Swakopmund is a pleasant town for many activities around, but even more for a day off. Doing some shopping, having a coffee in a nice cafe or just stroll around the streets with plenty of well-maintanand colonial buildings.
A little spot, just south of the Tropic Of Capricorn sign, on the vast Namib desert marked as fuel station on the maps, but it’s far more than that. Not only fuel, snacks, cool beverages and cold beers are served here. It’s also the place for the most famous apple tart in Namibia. The German baker, who introduced that delicious dessert midst in the desert, passed away a few years ago. His apple tart stays for many more generations, hopefully.
The big eye-catcher are the old-timers and trucks standing around the fuel station. In colorful rusty conditions they attract people for a stroll between them and take a few shots for remembering.
Not much to tell about the magnificent landscape around Sossusvlei area. It’s a Must for every Namibia newbie, so certainly i brought my parents here too. Take a bit time to feel sun, wind and sand on your skin.
There’s not many places on earth where those weird quiver trees are growing so dense to each other. Near Keetmanshoop is a farm which offers a campsite just next to a quiver tree forest. A perfect spot for viewing the sunset in amazing landscape.
Before that, or next morning, it’s a good advice to stroll trough „Giant’s Playground“. Big rocks laying around as merely thrown by playing giant’s.
Words hardly can describe the atmosphere, but photos can maybe give some impressions.
Despite the high costs, visiting the Serengeti plains and the Ngorogoro crater was considered as a Must. Travel with my Landrover wasn’t affordable, so i booked a tour by group. With bad maintenanced cars we drove the long was from Arusha into Serengeti area. First rule; never trust the words of a tour agencies. I’m not gonna start a list of all false promises and failures this overpriced tour brought me, but just tell you, that there was no tour group at all, which get what they told them.
The wildlife, landscape and experience of „real Africa“ was given. The following pics was chosen in a hurry. Sorry for not editing (at all), but just put it on my blog. I hope you still enjoy and get an idea about Serengeti and Ngorogoro Crater
Marangu. There’s not much to say, but only to enjoy that calm, tranquil village on foot of Mt.Kilimanjaro. For a long weekend i could enjoy the hospitality of these friendly people and had a little inside of their daily village life.
Early morning. Cool, pure air surrounds the highest mountain of Africa. With the first sun rays, light clouds start to gather around the peak. In the next hours the clouds get thicker and hiding Kilimanjaro behind it. The climate here is just perfect for coffee plantages. We learned the process after harvest coffee beans, peel the skin off the beans, roast it over fire and grind it to fine powder. Much fun, but also hard work and very interesting to see.
for a portfolio i collected my recently „best-of“ wildlife pictures
There’s plenty of options if you want hike around Yufu Town. Since i got invited with a bunch of ‚tourist experts‘ the organizer showed us the nicest places. Park Oita, at foot of Mount Kuradake, has not only extend forest and mountain walks to offer but also little waterfalls and fresh springs to drink from. The quality of water is superb. Not far from the park is a small factory for bottling the water just from the spring behind the buildings. Over the explanation of micro-small bubbles in natural carbonized water, trough high pressure deep in the rock, i start to doubt. The best way to get rid of my doubts was to taste it myself. The taste was differently indeed. After a group photo with the director we start heading back to Yufu …with some bottles of that special spring water in our bags, of course.
In der Gegend um Yufu gibt’s viele Möglichkeiten zu Wandern. Da ich hier mit einer Gruppe von ‚Tourismus-Experten‘ eingeladen wurde, zeigen uns die Organisatoren die schönsten Ecken. Dazu gehört der Park Oike am Fusse des Kuradake. Neben ausgedehnten Wanderwege durch dichten Wald, bietet der Park auch Wasserfällen und frische Quellen. Nicht weit vom Park wird Quellwasser in Flaschen abgefüllt. Einer der Quellen soll natürlich karbonisiertes Wasser enthalten. Durch den hohen Druck im tiefen Fels wird Kohlensäure in microkleinen Blasen ins Wasser gepresst. Ich zweifelte erst, wurde dann aber bei der Probe überrascht. Winzig kleine Kohlensäureblasen prickeln dem Gaumen entlang. Nach einem Gruppenfoto mit dem Direktor persönlich, fuhren wir zurück nach Yufu. Natürlich mit einigen Flaschen des Prickelwassers in den Taschen.
In Switzerland, a stroll in sunny autumn is a delight.
Den schweizer Herbst während einem Spaziergang geniessen.
rene bauer photography 